Last week saw the release of the fourth issue of Marvel Comics’ adaptation of the Disney+ live-action series Star Wars: Ahsoka, and below are my thoughts on this installment.
The fourth episode of Ahsoka was entitled “Fallen Jedi,” and issue #4 of the comic adaptation (written by Rodney Barnes with art by Georges Jeanty, inker Dexter Vines, and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg) does a good job of capturing the moody anxiety of this chapter in the series. In case you need a refresher, this part of the story picks up with the titular ex-Jedi, her apprentice Sabine Wren, and the professor droid Huyang having come to a less-than-comfortable landing on the autumn-hued planet Seatos. As Huyang and Sabine scramble to repair the ship and its communications array, Ahsoka considers the notion that if they are unable to make the journey to Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger’s location, nobody should.
I remember this being a particularly action-heavy episode with a lot of one-on-one battles, not just between Force-wielding opponents– Huyang also gets a brief but energetic battle scene against a HK-series assassin droid. And well-staged action on the screen (be it of the big or small variety) doesn’t always translate terribly well to the sequential-art page, but I think Jeanty and company continue to prove themselves worthy of translating the material between media. Meanwhile on the other side of the galaxy, General Hera Syndulla prepares to embark on her own quest to assist Ahsoka and Sabine, though without permission of the New Republic. Thankfully Captain Carson Teva and some of his fellow X-wing-piloting Adelphi Rangers are more than willing to go along for the ride.
The action on Seatos sees Sabine and Ahsoka doing their best to defeat their enemies– namely the other former Jedi in this story, Baylan Skoll, and his own apprentice Shin Hati– before the villainous Morgan Elsbeth is able to decode the spherical ancient map and plot the course to Thrawn’s location on Peridea. You’ll recall that in this instance it doesn’t necessarily work out well for our heroes, with Ahsoka being shoved off a cliff and Sabine giving in to her desire to see Ezra alive again by handing the map over to Baylan instead of destroying it in the moment. The tension building up to all of this worked well on Disney+, and I’d say it carries over to the comic adequately, except for a few of the weightier beats that suffer ever-so-slightly without real actors delivering the lines and emotion. But otherwise Barnes and Jeanty are still succeeding here at Ahsoka’s halfway point. I’m excited to see whether that success carries over to the series’ most-talked-about episode next month.
Star Wars: Ahsoka #4 is available now wherever comic books are sold.